---
title: I will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold, and say that anoth… — Indian Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: I will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold, and say that another must have slain it. Who acts: I, dog, friend. A sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Indian Fairy Tales, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12, sentence 6

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I will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold, and say that another must have slain it.

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**Who acts:** I, dog, friend · **What happens:** slay, ere, reach, say · **To what, where:** threshold, another · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Demon With Matted Hair " 196, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, dog, friend), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg7128:18:6
# text = I will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold, and say that another must have slain it.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	slay	slay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	ere	ere	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	reaches	reach	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	threshold	threshold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux	_	_
18	slain	slay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	ccomp	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **slay** | future | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ere** | past | the dog |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **reach** | present | friend | the threshold |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent threshold=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **slay** | must · perfect · passive |  | another |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Indian Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7128 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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